


To Dust

by scratchienails



Series: No Chance of Precipitation [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Gen, Vyra character study drabbles, might do more for other characters too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 15:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16746763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scratchienails/pseuds/scratchienails
Summary: For a while, she can lie to herself, pretend that maybe their mistakes can be undone.And then comes Playmaker, and she knows that there is no forgiveness and there is no redemption. If history remembers them at all, it will be as criminals. If humanity burns, it will be with that child’s hatred for them.





	To Dust

For a while, she can lie to herself, pretend that maybe their mistakes can be undone.

And then comes Playmaker, and she knows that there is no forgiveness and there is no redemption. If history remembers them at all, it will be as criminals. If humanity burns, it will be with that child’s hatred for them.

 

“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.” She said once. “They’re children.”

But it was already too late. They had abducted the kids, and been shocking and starving them for weeks. If they stopped now and left the project incomplete, all the pain the children had already been through would have been nothing more than senseless violence.

They had to see it through, had to make it all worth something.

 

Over time, some of the children started dissociating, disconnecting from the world. The shocks became harsher, more unreasonable, had them thrashing and screaming until even in their broken mindsets, they had to get back up and keep going.

It was getting harder and harder to watch, but they couldn’t stop, and they couldn’t let the children stop either.

 

Some Greek myths described the punishments of sinners in the underworld. Men forced to push boulders up hills only for the rocks to roll back down before they reached the top, for eternity. Men taunted with food and drink forever out of reach.

Those punishments seemed almost kind, in comparison to the torture they inflicted upon those children.

Kyoko sometimes stayed up at night, wondering what that said about them.

 

Kogami is caught, and the children are released to scatter to the wind; it’s a meaningless gesture, because there’s no rebounding from that kind of trauma. All under ten, each of those children is broken for life.

 

One of the children comes back, eventually, and there’s something fundamentally _wrong_ with him. She had known this one had created some truly horrific coping mechanisms under their care, but somehow, she’d thought that wouldn’t change anything once he was returned to the outside world.

But it’s not just a shock, it’s also a relief. It feels like vindication.

 

The Egyptians had believed in preserving one’s body for the afterlife.

Kogami’s son insisted on the same for his father.

 

The AI surpass, and destroy, any expectations. And they threaten to destroy a great deal more. It’s years before Kogami relents and makes the call, and they set out to destroy the Cyberse. It’s like setting fire to one’s finished thesis, burning years of hard work and dreams.

The children suffered for nothing, but by now Kyoko knows that it was always pointless. She just doesn’t care at all.

 

Someone is hunting them down, and it’s not even SOL or one of their hired assassins. The reports call him _Playmaker._ There is no other information available; even the members that encountered him have little to offer, defeated too quickly to even get a grasp of the challenger’s deck.

It’s nothing unusual, not even worth investigating. A lot of VRAINS players hate them, and plenty of others come seeking payback. Just because this one _wins_ is little cause for concern.

 

Playmaker turns out to be far more than a concern; he manages in an instant what they have all failed to obtain for five years, and captures the runaway Ignis.

They are running out of time. They _need_ to destroy the Ignis, or Kogami will take out the whole network. But they are confident, they are assured, and they will not fail.

 

Revolver lost.

And Playmaker isn’t just anyone with a grudge. No, Playmaker is one of _them_ , one of the children from ten years ago. Which one? Unbidden, the image of the boy with the striking green eyes comes to mind. She’s not sure why, but maybe because Playmaker’s avatar bears a similar shade.

It’s not like they even have the names on record, so it doesn’t matter. Like searching for a bloody needle in a haystack.

 

Somehow, they never saw this coming. They never once thought that one of the children would come back for revenge, to haunt them in more than just their nightmares. Maybe Spectre lulled them into a false sense of security, maybe they were still just as blind as they ever were.

Maybe this is what they deserve: to watch their mistakes burn the whole world to the ground. But Kyoko doesn’t want to watch anymore, so she tells Revolver to shut her eyes and lay her to rest.

What comes next, whether hell or worse, was probably inevitable.


End file.
